The present invention relates generally to a method of cutting an animal carcass into edible meat products and more particularly, to a method of cutting a flat or outside round, into a plurality of steaks or london broils.
The butchering and dressing of animals, such as cattle, for the purpose of producing edible meat or beef products is well known. Animals are butchered into meat products such as rib roasts, sirloin steaks, strip steaks, and the like. Typically, a side or quarter of beef is butchered by a meat cutter cutting or otherwise removing from the standing side or beef quarter as many "high value" beef products as feasible. Such high value beef products include roasts, steaks, and the like. Once the high value cuts or products are removed from the standing side or beef quarter, the products are further processed by deboning, trimming, cleaning, and the like, and are thereafter wrapped and sold for relatively high per pound prices. Such high value cuts include the middle cuts of the carcass including the rib, loin, and sirloin. They are typically considered the most tender and are derived from the most well-protected, less-stressed muscles and have a fine close-grained texture.
Other less desirable or lower value components are also removed from the remainder of the side or beef quarter and sold separately as less valuable roasts. Typically, the lesser desirable components include muscles having coarse grains running in many different directions similar to a cowlick unlike the fine closed grained texture described above. Alternatively, the removed lower value components are placed into a meat grinder along with other components trimmed from the higher value products and converted into ground beef to be sold at a generally lesser price per pound than the per pound price of higher value products. Any meat which goes through a grinder becomes a commodity of lesser quality and cost.
As the cost of bringing beef and other animal products to market has risen, a need has also arisen for obtaining enhanced value from the beef or other animal. One way to provide such enhanced value is to reduce the amount of the beef which sold as a low value roast or is placed in the meat grinder and to sell such beef at a per pound price in excess of the price of the low value roast or ground beef. Muscles cut into steaks and london broils are the most preferred and high value products with steaks and london broils having a fine unidirectional grain being the most popular. Advancements have been made in obtaining some higher value cuts of meat particularly in the area of identifying and removing heretofore previously ignored muscles and extracting from such muscles the cartilage, fat, connective tissue and other non-muscle materials.
One area that until now has been neglected is in the area of the flat or outside round which is located beneath the rump and is part of the leg which is typically an undesirable part. As such, a substantial portion of the outside round is either sold with a considerable amount of fat, connective tissue and other non-muscle material as a single inexpensive roast or is put into the grinder, converted into ground beef, and sold at a substantially lower cost than other products. Also, in addition to the increased cost of bringing beef to market, new demands are also made of butchers and meat producers to produce still more high quality beef with low fat content, often considered to be "heart healthy". This is particularly the situation as fears of dangerous diseases associated with poultry are on the rise. There is a need to provide more high quality cuts of meat.